Team Jagr played soccer, but minus Jagr, reports Czech news agency CTK (see iDNES.cz). Jagr explained why he didn't play: "I'm injured, I can't possibly move my joint and could have thrown it out. Anyway, soccer is not my favorite sport. Sluggishness has already set in. I still have two weeks until hockey camp at Slany, then I can try a little something afterwards in Kladno, but until then I'm out. But to go straight from nothing into training in Kladno [on August 20th], I would be injured in two days. I must do it gradually until I reach condition, especially skating, so that I'm not handicapped in skating, in my legs. That's where I have to certainly get to again, training twice a day without problem. Good things are there, like rehabilitation." [Sorry for the sloppy translation.]
Petr Prucha is training with Team Jagr, so hokej.cz took the opportunity to talk to him there. He remains haunted by his knee injury, despite "taking the world's most prestigious league by storm in his first season" [writer's words, not Prucha's]. He may retain some doubt about the trademark invincibility that set him apart from other rookies last season.
In his Sunday column yesterday in the New York Post, Larry Brooks had some news about unsigned RFAs Marcel Hossa and Fedor Tyutin. The former unwisely turned down the Rangers' offer of a two-way contract, which hopefully spells the end of his undistinguished Ranger career, in which he was one of the few players, maybe even the only season-long player, who refused to buy into the team's work ethic. Progress is reportedly being made on the Tyutin front, which will hopefully allow the promising young rearguard to comfortably build on his rookie season, maximizing his evident talent and minimizing his late-season inconsistency.
The bulk of Brooks's column was about how the Devils plan to work themselves out of a large portion of their self-imposed salary cap woes -- they will try to rehabilitate Vladimir Malakhov and Alexander Mogilny as NHL players and then find ways to get rid of them in ways the NHL cannot void. We remain flabbergasted that this is happening to the Devils when all bets were that the Rangers would be the team that got itself into this kind of trouble.
In more Ranger-related Devil news, who says you can't regain the form of your youth? That is what Mike Dunham hopes to do -- he is a candidate for the Devils' backup job, which will help him achieve the success of his youth, when he somehow built a reputation as a capable NHL goaltender despite rarely playing behind workhorse netminder Martin Brodeur.
Although it seems that the Penguins will be sold to a Hartford-based real estate magnate, Hartford is not a likely destination for the franchise should Pittsburgh fail to provide the team with a modern arena. See the report in the Courant. And in other arena news, the town of St. Albert, Alberta is trying to sell the naming rights of the arenas it named after a couple of hometown boys, one of them being Mark Messier. Good luck to them, although the only logical candidate will not give up its historic self-advertising name of Madison Square Garden.
Prucha's knee injury haunts me also! ;-)
Even before he was injured I always found myself gasping when I saw someone lining him up. I don't know how many times I would yell from my seats, "Heads up Petr!!" The kid had me worried all year that he would eventually get caught blindsided by someone like Hal Gill and never get up. I would love to see him put on about 20-30 lbs. That would put him in the 180-190lbs range, which is where he needs to be IMO in order to be able to take the day-in-day-out punishment that he will definitely receive. I think that will also allow him to keep the agility and 'shiftiness' that is so much of his game...whereas if he bulked up too much he would lose.
Posted by: Chris QCT | July 31, 2006 at 04:30 PM
Petr and Pavel Bure are basically the same shape and size. How did Bure avoid getting killed on the ice, or did he?
Posted by: Derek | July 31, 2006 at 06:29 PM
Wow this doesn't sound good at all. Jagr still cant move his shoulder????? I really hope hes back for the start of the season, but now im going to be worried he will just re-injure it right away. This doesnt look good at all.
Posted by: Tom | July 31, 2006 at 06:33 PM
On the Ranger board on the official site, a Czech fan checked in with their translation and it's a much better article with the proper translation. Sorry to whoever wrote it here.
Don't know if this is allowed but here's a link to the thread:
http://bb.newyorkrangers.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=25053
Scroll down to the 8th post.
Posted by: ladyranger79 | July 31, 2006 at 07:26 PM
ChrisCT-
I feel the same way about Prucha, I love the kid but I think he's going to get seriously hurt out there, which is why I proposed trading him for Afinogenov. His value may never be higher than it is now...
Posted by: TommyG | July 31, 2006 at 09:11 PM
No problem posting the link to the better translation -- we want to make sure we get these things right. We'd love to get good, timely translations from natural Czechophones instead of relying on online translators -- the main problem is that many of the words we try to translate have many meanings that depend on the context, and that's hard for a non-Czech speaker to figure out.
The Jagr quotes are accurate, according to the Czech translator at the NYR Bulletin Board -- that's the most critical thing. It's not as bad as it sounds -- he was supposed to be ready for training camp, not for a late-July soccer exhibition, and it sounds like he has a good plan to achieve that.
The gist of the Prucha article happens to be accurate too -- by saying he remains "haunted" by the injury, the suggestion was that he has to overcome it mentally, not that he's still injured. And until he does, one has to be concerned about him playing with the abandon that made him such a treat to watch last season.
That jives with everything written about the injury in English last spring, and it jives with every off-season artcile written about Prucha in which he never fails to mention the injury. That he is working extra hard to make sure it's ready for the season is of course a good thing, but it also adds to that notion that it is a big concern to him. That's what we gleaned from our unschooled reading of the original Czech.
Posted by: Dubi | July 31, 2006 at 10:11 PM
After reading this above article, the signing of Shanny is looking better and better. Without Jags and a healthy Prucha our offense would be non existent.
Posted by: Bob Merchant | July 31, 2006 at 10:45 PM
Hey anyone hear of any Rangers rumors? Anything on Leetch? I wonder with the Roszival talks going sour if he could get moved in a trade - maybe for Vitali Vishneski, another disgruntled player - however because of his arbitration hearing. I would rather have the Rangers swing a trade for a forward or PP specialist which we are without if they dont resign Roszival, if they dont Leetch and if Ozolish doesnt wind up coming back. Thomas Pock or Staal are not options for the PP point and starting the rush. ANy thoughts everybody?
Posted by: Nick | July 31, 2006 at 11:50 PM
My thought is that I can't wait for the season to begin so fans have something to think about besides who they can trade away for what over-priced, disgruntled cast-away. ;)
Posted by: laurie | August 01, 2006 at 07:55 AM